HK & China Gas profit down 1% to HK$2.97bln

Company continues to look for mainland gas projects with its China unit's profit up 34%.

Hong Kong & China Gas Co., the piped-fuel supplier controlled by billionaire Lee Shau-kee, posted a 1 percent decline in first-half profit after lower returns on property investments offset an increase in sales.

Net income fell to HK$2.97 billion from HK$3 billion a year earlier, the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday. Earnings per share were unchanged at 41.3 Hong Kong cents. The profit beat a median estimate of HK$2.55 billion in a survey of three analysts compiled by Bloomberg.

The utility boosted its earnings in the first half of last year with a HK$711 million gain in property investments and sales and a one-off of HK$200 million from the revaluation of a coal mine, according to a Citigroup Global Markets research note last month. Revenue from property sales slumped 61 percent to HK$142.5 million in the first six months of 2010.

Profit showed “a slight decrease of HK$33.9 million compared with the same period last year due to reductions in one-off gains and profits from the sale of properties,” Hong Kong & China Gas said on Tuesday. Revenue surged 66 percent to HK$10.4 billion.

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